Italian Confectionery – Sweet Luxury for your Customers

Italy is well known for its history, it amazing scenery, its art and for its amazing culinary variety: pasta, pizza, succulent fruits and vegetable, wines, cheeses, ice cream and some of the most delicious and decedent pastries and confectionery imaginable.

Whether you own a local sweet shop or are responsible for a range of supermarkets, you know that the British public is always looking for new and exciting taste experiences. You also know that there is an ever-increasing demand not only for innovation, but also for quality.

Here is just a brief overview of some of Italy’s most established confectionery, offering flavours and stories that I think your customers will love.

Venchi

Venchi has been producing Italian confectionery since 1878. The company was founded by Silviano Venchi in Turin, the home of gianduja and many other exquisite chocolaty creations. He would wander through the city, watching expert chocolatiers work their magic. At the age of 16 he became an apprentice and, in 1878 set out to found his chocolate empire.

Today, one of the main themes of Venchi Italian confectionery is the Piedmont hazelnut which is incorporated in many ways into much of their chocolate. There is wide range of Venchi creations available in the UK, including nougatine cigars, Cuban rum truffles, dark and milk chocolate hazelnut blocks and some tempting spreads.

Quaranta

Located in the town of Caravaggio 40 km from Milan in northern Italy, Quaranta has been producing sumptuous Italian confectionery since 1920. They specialise in bringing to the UK’s sweet tooth some of the most delicious Italian nougat, nut brittle, sugar coated pralines and lollipops.

The basic nougat recipe is Sofficiona, which Quaranta combines with a variety of fruit, nuts, creams and chocolate to produce a delectable range of sweet delights. All Quaranta products are handmade, gluten and GMO free and contain no hydrogenated vegetable fats or artificial colourings.

Leone

Another veteran producer of fine sweets, Pastiglie Leone started out in 1857 producing handcrafted fruit pastilles. Today they remain one of the company’s main products but their range has expanded to include many different flavours and textures as well as some delectable chocolate creations, Italian liquorice, absinthe liqueurs and more.

Whether you’re looking for Liquorice, Ginger and Balsamic Gums, Propolis Pastilles or sugar free sweets to line your shelves, you can rely on the quality of Leone’s Italian confectionery.

Amarelli

This family business has been producing sweets since the sixteenth century when the family was harvesting, processing and selling liquorice roots in the Calabria region of Italy. The roots from this region were – and still are – considered to be the best in the world. They were originally sold to pilgrims and soldiers on long journeys because of their invigorating qualities. Later on, in 1731, they began extracting juice from the root to make marketing liquorice on a large scale more feasible.

Today, this Italian confectionery company has a large and varied range of products including its original liquorices, liquorice and chocolate combinations, root liquorice and powdered liquorice root and even liquorice beer and liqueurs. Their distinctive retro packaging will look excellent on your shelves.